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Zacaria Candao became the second governor of the Maguindanao province succeeding Simeon A. Datumanong. He resigned on April 1, 1977. Sultan Kudarat Municipal Mayor Sanggacala M. Baraguir was appointed by then President Ferdinand Marcos to succeed Candao.[3]

After the People Power Revolution, Candao was appointed as acting governor of Maguindanao in April 5, 1986 by then President Corazon Aquino.[3] He was also the acting chairman of the Executive Council of the Regional Autonomous Government for Central Mindanao.[5]Candao was elected as Maguindanao's governor in 1989, he later resigned to run as governor of the then-newly created Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and was succeeded by Vice Governor Norodin Matalam as Maguindanao governor.[3]

Candao participated in ARMM's first gubernatorial elections on February 12, 1990[6] and was elected as the autonomous region's first governor. He officially assumed the post months later on July 6, 1990.[2] He vied for a second term in the 1993 March elections but lost to Lininding P. Pangandaman.[7]

After being the ARMM regional governor, Candao ran again for the post of Governor of Maguindanao in 1995. He was successful and won re-election in 1998. He lost to Andal Ampatuan Sr. in the 2001 elections.[3]

The Sandiganbayan found Candao along his brother and executive secretary Abas Candao guilty of nine counts of malversation in October 2008 sentencing him to 162 years of prison (18 years per count) for embezzling ₱21 million of public funds. Then-state auditor Heidi Mendoza led a team that discovered the unlawful release of 52 checks from December 1992 to March 1993. Candao filed a motion for consideration before the Supreme Court on October 19, 2011 to reverse the guilty verdict. The high court however upheld the decision in early 2012 after it found "no compelling reason" for the petition.[8]